


Queen's Gambit

by firewolfsg



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Family, Fluff, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-16
Updated: 2015-08-16
Packaged: 2018-04-14 23:17:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4583916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firewolfsg/pseuds/firewolfsg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was a risk Penelope wasn't sure if she'd dearly pay for when she allowed the FBI to catch The Black Queen. However, in the end she couldn't say she ever regretted taking up SSA Arron Hotchner's offer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Queen's Gambit

**Author's Note:**

> I extracted this bit from the fics I had in planning. It seemed like it could stand alone as my general impression of how Hotch and Gracia came to work together.
> 
> Builds on the opening screen of S09Ep12 The Black Queen

The first time she met him, Penelope had had to ground one foot on top of another under the table to stop herself from panicking and crying from her fear and upset over being caught by the FBI. Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner was the optimum of the G-man in his dark tailored suit and stern unsmiling features.

He had her purse returned and asked her to write out a resume for them if she was willing to consider working for his team as a Tech Analysis instead of facing jail time. It was a no brainer, and she pulled out her homemade pink stationery for the exact task. This, she knew was possibly going to be her last chance of rebellion before she went into FBI custody and into an environment so controlled she'd probably lose any personality left in her. Penelope was impressed that the G- man didn't even blink when she handed back her CV.

Hotchner and the black agent left her for a long while after that, making her at first afraid that they had forgotten her. It was almost a relief to see Hotchner return with some officious looking employment forms. He sat facing her and began to read some sections of the form and turn them back to her to verify the correctly transcribed information about her in his neat script.

"Looks right." She had told him sullenly after she perused the papers.

"Then I'll just need you to sign right here."

Penelope had blinked at the hand that appeared on top of the form. That couldn't be right? The hand which emerged from the dark suit with French cuffed shirt sleeves secured by steel cuff links belonged to the G-man, but the pen held in that hand and being offered to her was a bright psychedelic feathery...

She stared open mouthed at the G-man across the table. He had an eyebrow raised at her with an amused glint in his eye and a slight up turning of his mouth. The hint of a dimple lined the side of his mouth.

Penelope couldn't help it; she started to laugh and she couldn't stop. Then she started to cry as well, making her mascara run down her cheeks like dark rivers. Unfortunately, he made it worse by offering her a garishly coloured handkerchief that she knew couldn't possibly be his.

By the time Penelope finally got herself under control, SSA Hotchner had pulled his chair beside her and had a box of tissues and wet wipes on the table with them that she gladly used to clean off the rest of the Goth makeup on her face. Once she thought her face presentable again, she accepted the offered bottle of water.

As Penelope gratefully drank the water, she was momentarily worried again, because she knew she had cried her contacts out and couldn't see. Then the G-man surprised her once more by presenting her with a pair of spectacles he'd obviously retrieved from her hovel. However, it wasn't the plain severe black frames Penelope used when she wasn't using her contacts. This was her old pair... the fun specs with kitty ears that she used to wear before The Black Queen.

She put them on anyway and was hit by her fourth surprise. The prescription had been updated to what she currently used. She stared at him now in awe and with a bit of fear.

"W-- we've--we've only just met. How--how could you know so much about me?"

"That this," he fingered the colourful feathery pen, "is the real you and not the Goth?"

"I'm The Black Queen."

"An alias you created for yourself after-- a personal tragedy." He told her delicately as he took her hand. "You were punishing yourself by turning away from what you believed you didn't deserve."

"How--"

"I'm a Profiler, Penelope. I'm from a branch of the FBI called the Behavioural Analysis Unit, and I've been trained to read crime scenes and people to help the victims and catch the perpetrators. And I really think you would be a good addition to my unit to help us save lives and bring justice to victims of crimes."

"How do you know you can trust me?"

"Because I believe you now see me as one of very few people you've ever met, who actually might know who you really are beneath the facade of The Black Queen. Will *you* trust me and come work for me?"

"I--I'd like that, G-man."

"Hotch. My friends call me 'Hotch'."

Penelope smiled brightly at him, drawing a corresponding smile from him too which let his dimples out. Yes, Penelope knew she could trust Aaron Hotchner. And that he was going to lead her out of the abyss that was her current life. Just like she'd hoped when she allowed herself to be caught.

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

For all her initial fears about allowing herself to be caught, the FBI actually treated her well. Though she suspected it was in no small part due to Hotch's influence. Hotch even offered her a decent salary. Plus she had use of a set of apartments free for six months, then at a reasonable rent until she could secure her own place.

Her office... it had been ominous and impersonal that first day. However, with that first case she worked with the team? When SSA Derek Morgan first called her 'baby girl'? That sealed it. It was like coming home.

But the bodies... Oh, my God. The crime scenes... That was hard. Yet again, her new boss man came to her rescue, giving her a penholder of ridiculously colourful feathered pens to brighten up her office.

"They're not regulation, but you can decorate your office, Penelope. We all have our personal space." It was an invitation she embraced and oh how she clung to the explicit permission given.

Then one day, when she'd been bruised by some forgettable bit of FBI regulations, Hotch sent her an email about a fictitious [Special High Intensity Training (SHIT) policy](http://www.theurbancountry.com/2005/06/special-high-intensity-training-memo.html). Penelope was glad that her office was sound proof, because her otherwise stoic boss, who she realised other people thought never smiled, had just sent her a chain mail. And the subject poked hilarious fun at stodgy corporate culture. She would have laughed the whole building down if her office hadn't been reinforced concrete and steel. SSA Aaron Hotchner had just spoiled her to think of working for any other boss.

Penelope loved her new life and she knew for as long as Aaron Hotchner was her boss man, she'd never leave this job with the FBI.

End (And a new beginning)


End file.
